Services - Guide to Selling Property in Scotland
The aim of this guide is to help make you more familiar with the procedures involved in selling a property in Scotland. It is particularly geared towards our methods of marketing your property and not all Estate agents and Solicitors will apply the same methods. However, we hope that you will find it useful.
The first stage in selling your property is obtaining a pre-market valuation. Our property manager, Donna McRae, will be happy to visit your property to discuss the sale and to provide you with a valuation for marketing purposes.
This pre-market valuation will let you know how much your estate agent would recommend marketing your property for and the selling price he thinks you should be able to achieve. At this stage you will recieve a quotation of the fees and outlays likely to be incurred in the sale and marketing of your property.
Property particulars will then be prepared for approval by you. The particulars will take the for of an A4 booklet and it will consist of an overview of the property on the first page, followed by a more detailed breakdown of each room in the centre pages. On the last page there is a useful map showing the location of your property. You should pay particular attention to the particulars and ensure that they are accurate.
Once the particulars are approved, the property will then be advertised, both locally and on our web site. The particulars will be sent to potential purchasers on our mailing list. They will also be distributed to interested parties who call past our offices for them. If you have any particular requirements with regard to the advertising of your property then please do not hesitate to discuss this with a member of our property team.
At Drever & Heddle we are happy to show people your property on your behalf if you are unable to do this. Or we can simply contact you, or someone nominated by yourself, to arrange viewings.
After every viewing we will attempt to contact the viewer to obtain their feeedback. We will thereafter get in touch with you, usually weekly, and let you know the viewers comments, if any.
If you agree a price verbally with someone we would strongly recommend that you do not take your property off the markeet until a written offer has been recieved and discussed with our property department. In Scotland, a verbal offer for a property is not binding and cannot form part of a contract for sale of a property.
If an offer is made for your property we will contact you to discuss this. You may accept or decline this offer straight away or, if there is other interest in your property, set a closing date.
Alternatively you may choose to wait for more interest to be generated before setting a closing date. We will help you to reach a decision on this when an offer is recieved.
Usually no more offers will then be submitted before the closing date. At the closing date, all the parties who wish to make an offer are invited to their offers. This will enable you to compare all the offers for the property at the same time and shouldensure that the best possible price is achieved
As soon as possible after the closing date our property department will contact you to discuss all the offers recieved. As well as discussing the price with you, we will draw attention to any special conditions in the offers and you should consider these as well as the price offered. You are free to choose any of the offers submitted, or indeed reject all the offers and continue to market the property.
If you require further advice about any offers you have recieved, please feel free to discuss this with the solicitor who will be acting on your behalf.
Once you have verbally accepted an offer, the matter will thereafter be taken up by one of our solicitors, who should by this time have recieved the title deeds for your property.
The solicitor will send you a copy of the offer and request that you contact them to discuss the offer in more detail in order for them to produce either:-
- A qualified acceptance, which may modify some of the conditions attached to the original offer or add new conditions into the contract. It is then for the purchasing solicitor to conclude the contract for the purchase if they accept the changes made; or
- A letter concluding the contract of the sale. At this stage you are bound to sell the property on the terms and conditions in the offer.
While the contract is being negotiated, your solicitor will deal with the legal work involved in the sale. Unless there are problems with this you are not likely to be contacted until the necessary documents required to be signed by you to complete the sale have been prepared and are ready for signing.
Your solicitor will either arrange for you to come in and sign these or send them out to you for signing. Once these have been signed and the keys have been handed in to our office, we are ready to settle the sale.
Settlement usually happens on the date of entry agreed but it can be earlier or later, as agreed between the parties. If there is likely to be a delay in the settlement your solicitor will keep you fully advised. Please feel free to contact your solicitor, or his secretary, at any time for an update on your sale.
At settlement, the keys for the property and the necessary title deeds are exchanged with the purchasing solicitor for the purchase price of the property, usually in the form of a cheque.
We will thereafter contact you to confirm the settlement has taken place. Any mortgages over the property will be repaid by us and the balance of the purchase price (after deductions of our fees and outlays) will be sent directly to you, either by cheque to yourself or to your bank or by bank transfer if the funds are needed urgently. If you have any special requirements with regard to settlement you should discuss these with your solicitor at the earliest possible opportunity.
For more information please contact Derek Rennie.